To the Editor:
Re “A Bold Plan Sweeps Away Reagan Ideas,” by David Leonhardt (Economic Scene, front page, Feb. 27):
Statistics on rising economic inequality in the United States often make people’s eyes glaze over. They shouldn’t.
President Obama’s attempt to restore some semblance of economic equality and fairness is of paramount importance. It’s the right thing to do morally.
It is also essential to re-establishing an economy and culture that can, in turn, stand behind all other necessary and vital policy changes, in every sphere of social life.
Consider the contrast: the soaring economic inequality of the Reagan-Bush era concentrated wealth and power. That has egregiously distorted our political system, tilting policy in favor of perpetuating inequality and frustrating crucial reforms. The bitter fruits of that distortion are evident all around, most obviously in the regulatory lapses that contributed to economic calamity.
It is going to require enormous effort to ensure that President Obama’s bold, good and essential budget proposal survives the torturous journey through Congress.
Richard E. Sclove
Amherst, Mass., Feb. 27, 2009
Note from KBJ: Does the "Reagan-Bush era" include Clinton?
